


There's Something Different Here

by SethVecc



Category: none'
Genre: F/F, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:08:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25076629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SethVecc/pseuds/SethVecc
Kudos: 1





	1. The First Day

I guess you could say I just wanted to die. Not like actually die but more of wanting to skip my entire existence and only be present for the good parts.  
I’m not saying my life isn't good or just plain bad but once you switch schools and leave all your friends who now live in another state, life just gets a lot more dull. Not only the leaving them part but leaving them at the beginning of senior year, yeah that’s right. My family decided to move a month before going into my last year in high school. So not only did I have to ditch my friends that I have known since kindergarten a year earlier than expected but now I have to make new friends just for one year and then leave them for college too.  
“Rafael!” I heard my mom's voice come from downstairs, “time to get up, it's your first day of school, you don't want to be late.”  
I got out of bed and the movement startling my cat who was asleep next to me. My cat opened his eyes and looked at me with a look that just seemed to convey “why have you woken me of my slumber” then proceeded to stretch and close his eyes and fall back to sleep.  
Oh how I loathed to be a cat right then and there, with no responsibilities and getting to sleep whenever you want. But I did have responsibilities and I couldn't just sleep forever.  
I breathed out a breath of air before putting on a tshirt and a pair of pants that I picked out last night. I went and completed the rest of my morning routine trying to ignore the fluttering in my stomach from the thought of going to a new school and meeting new people. I walked downstairs and decided to try and make myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast, but I looked at the time and saw that the clock read 6:57am. CRAP! I was going to be late. I had to get to school by 7:15 in order to get my schedule and a tour of the place. I dumped my cereal back into the box and put the milk back in the fridge and proceeded to grab my bag and my car keys before opening the door.  
“Bye Mom, Bye Dad! I’ll see you later.” I shouted, turning behind and shutting the door behind me before I could hear their reply.  
Ever since we moved here a couple of weeks ago I barely spoke to my parents besides pleasantries. I love my parents. I really do but they had to just up and move my life and change everything in a time when I needed it to be stable before going off to college. Not just that though but they didn't even have a reasonable explanation that we had to move here just that it would be better for the family.  
It took me about fifteen minutes to get to my new school which means I barely made it in time for me to meet my principle. As I approached the front office I saw a bunch of kids walk through a massive blue gate, all of them look to be around my age and know where they are going so I am guessing that they were returning students. In the distance I could see a concrete stage where all the kids seemed to be heading, when I took a closer look I saw that there were huge sheets of paper in column with each column labeled a different grade level the only grade level that was missing was the freshmans.  
I looked around again this time trying to find anyone that looked to be older so that I could find the principle. I spotted someone in front of a building that I assumed to be the front office. The woman looked to be about in her forties with blond hair and her roots looked darker to a more brown. Next to her was a kid who looked to be around my age. He was wearing a plain black shirt and some black basketball shorts with a line of red in them, he was wearing black glasses and had blond hair on the top of his head but light brown hair on the rest of his head. I approached them hoping that the id would go away so that I could speak to the lady alone. But the lady seemed to spot me and started towards me with the boy following her.  
“Hello, are you Rafael Torres?” she said her voice seemed to be a bit louder as if she was used to speaking to a huge crowd. I nodded my head and looked to see that she was holding out her hand so that I could shake it, not to show that I had bad manners I shook her hand.  
“Well, welcome to your new school! I am your principal Dr. Damico. Unfortunately I am a little busy today to show you around today..”  
Great! So now I don't have a tour guide on my very first day. I thought.  
“But I did notice that you are transferring into the IB program so I brought you a student who is going to show you around who is also from the program.” She smiled and gestured to the boy I saw talking with her earlier. He looked at me and smiled before putting out his hand for me to shake. Again, not wanting to come off rude I took his hands and got a rush of the smell of sea water before I suddenly took my hand away and put my hands in my jean pockets.  
The principal must have been saying something but I was so stunned by the sudden sense of smell that I had a moment earlier to realize what she was saying. I tried to breathe in more air to see if I got any more sea smells but all I could smell was the fresh air.  
When I looked up the principle was now gone and the boy was just staring at me.  
“Oh good, your back to reality. I was worried that I was going to knock you out of it.” he laughed trying to break the tension. “I’m Seth, it's nice to meet you.”  
I looked at him seeing that he had a big smile on his face and didn't seem to get any fake vibes from him before replying “Rafael.”  
“Well Rafael before we get started I’ll tell you a little bit about myself so that we aren't strangers. I'm eighteen, I'm a senior like you are. I have been at this school since freshman year and also been in the IB program since then also. I love reading and hanging out with my friends. I am no way a genius but I can get by in my classes and I am also the IB club president so I am in charge of most of the things that go on in IB. That's why I offered to show you around since who better to show you around so you could learn all the little secrets on how to get by than by no one other than someone who has had to do then himself. Now why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself? Only if you want too.”  
I looked at Seth in his eyes and although he was saying all these good things about himself I didn't really get the hint of him bragging more of just him trying to be nice and show that he can help me if I really wanted it.  
“Well I moved here recently from Arizona so the weather conditions are a lot more different than the heat I usually feel over there. I am seventeen but I turn eighteen in about three months. Um, I was in the IB program at my old school and was considered a high level student but I never really liked the attention since school was just a more natural thing for me and the homework was more to keep myself busy. Also I am Gay so if you ahve a problem with that then I suggest you suck it up and deal with it.”  
Seth just proceeded to chuckle, “well good to know and I don’t have a problem with it and no one else will in IB either. You see I’m pansexual and there also kids in IB who will be pansexual and bisexual but I don’t think we have any gays or lesbians but we do have the straight kids but they don’t count.”  
Seth then started to walk towards one of the buildings passing the concrete stage where I saw a bunch of kids earlier.  
“Well over there,” he said pointing towards the stage, “is the place where you found out whose class you will be in on your first day of school. At this school we do things a bit differently and the first two days you don’t have actual class but we show the freshman around so that they get to know one another and the school better. After the tour I was told that we have a meeting in another classroom that's only for the IB kids.”  
Seth then showed me around the school and how the numbers on the buildings would probably be confusing cause the buildings aren't in any order.  
“Can you show me where my classes are going to be so that I don’t get lost on my way to class?” I asked  
“We actually don’t get our schedules till tomorrow but I can have someone show you since more IB kids have the same classes except our electives. So what electives did you pick?”  
“I was in Art last year so that's my elective but I am not sure what my free period is going to be this year. I asked for AP Physics but I’m not sure if I can take it.” I said solemnly I actually enjoy most science classes. I loved finding different ways of how the world works ever since I was a little kid.  
“Oh good, I’ll actually be able to show you to your classes since those are my classes also, so at least you know you have one friend there.” He said with a smile on his face.  
The rest of the tour was pretty standard showing me that this is where the higher grades hangout, or the place the stoners are mostly just a typical high school.  
I was then led to a room marked 611 where about thirty or so kids must have been. When they saw Seth they proceeded to shout and greet him by giving him hugs and pats on the back. Seth then motioned me to follow him towards a desk in the corner of the room where a man wearing a fancy suite was sitting. I assumed he was a teacher seeing that he looked like he was the only adult in the room.  
“This is Morris, Rafael he is our zero period teacher that we have for TOK.” Seth said  
“Nice to meet you sir.” I said  
“It's nice to meet you too Rafael. I saw on your transcript that you already completed your year of TOK so you won’t be required to come to my zero period unless you really want to come, but that’s your choice.”  
“Thank you sir. For now I think I will just try my other classes for now.”  
“Well that's alright just know that you are always welcome to come and join in.” He then gestured to the front of the room, “ I think Seth is going to make an announcement.”  
I turned to where he pointed to and Seth was in the front of the class.  
“Hello IB Seniors, all of you know who I am so I will skip the pleasantries. We have a couple of things to go over. First of all I would like all of you to know that I am so excited to be back and I am hoping everyone has been well over the past few months. Second, today we have a meeting over course requirements with the head of IB in our school.” At that a bunch of groans and I even saw this one short girl with black hair pretend that she was gagging. “Thirdly, now that we are seniors we have the opportunity to practice our more special skills at least once a week. This means that on Fridays we get to spend the day using these skills all day.”  
I was confused on what he meant by these “skills” but I assume it would be it's basically a free day to work on whatever you like.  
“And finally I like you all to meet someone.” Seth motioned to me telling him to go over to him.  
“This is Rafael Torres. He is our brand new student for the year and I like you all to treat him with respect that you treat me.” He paused for a moment. “Actually treat him better than me.” Everyone seemed to chuckle at that. “That will be all. Thank you.”  
Seth then grabbed my arm and brought me to a big group.  
“Everyone I like you to meet Rafael. Rafael I like you to meet some of my friends.”  
The first to greet me was a girl she had pale skin with brown hair with some highlights, she was on the shorter side coming to about my shoulder length. She reached out her hand which I took and suddenly a flash of an image of a girl who had the same build and height came to my mind. She looked sort of like the girl I was shaking hands with but with hair coming down to her shoulders instead of the middle of her back. Then suddenly I was back in reality. I was so stunned that I didn’t catch what the girl was saying.  
“I’m so sorry what did you say?” The girl just smiled and replied.  
“My name is Emma, it's nice to meet you. From what Seth has been saying you seem pretty chill and I am glad to have another person join the gay club,” she then turned to Seth, “or should we call us the gay pride, ya know. Like a pride of lions but also like pride.” She started chuckling and telling from the eye roll from Seth and the other kids this seemed to be normal behavior for Emma.  
Then the guy next to her waved to me saying that his name was Malachi. He had the same build as Seth but much more of a fancy dresser than Seth was. He wore a collared shirt and some necklaces and bracelets with some nice fitting jeans.  
Then came a girl named Xion and Jazzy, both had their hair in long braids and they had fair black skin. Xion was about the same height as Emma but Jazzy was taller and was probably as tall if not taller than Seth was.  
Then the final person came up and put his hand out for me to shake. He was on the taller side he had white skin but when you looked closer seemed to have some freckles, his brown hair was short but seemed to be styled in a way that I could only describe as natural. The only way to describe how all these details fit together was a single word.  
Gorgeous.  
I took his hand in mine but instead of warmth I was met with cold. A cold so harsh it sent shivers down my spine and I could feel the goosebumps forming on my skin. But the cold didn’t scare me; it just made everything feel so much more intense like every nerve was on hyperdrive. I could feel the deep callouses on his hand and practically feel my heartbeat getting stronger with every second that I held on. But then the hand was gone and so was that intense cold.  
“The name is Hayden, it's great to meet you.” He said his voice was calm and smooth.  
“It's great to meet you.” I replied a little too quickly, “Um, I mean it's great to meet all of you.” Gesturing to the people around me.  
My eyes locked with Hayden for a second again, and I could feel my body craving that intensity all over again. But before I could do or say anything a loud buzzer rang and everyone seemed to gather their things before going out the door. I turned to Seth to see what was going on.  
“That is the class bell usually that means that the period is over but now it just means we got to meet with our designated teachers which means for us to go over the IB requirements all day long. 

The rest of the day was pretty boring. We were lectured on our requirements in order to get the IB diploma. Given the whole you guys are the elite of the school because you take the hardest classes and all that. I pretty much tuned everything already knowing most of the things they were talking about.  
But the thing I couldn’t shake from my mind was how everyone I had touched seemed to give me some sort of vibe and then some odd sensation. The sea breeze smell from Seth, the image of the girl with Emma, and the cold with Hayden. I looked around the room and then something I wasn’t expecting was that I saw a girl but not just any girl but the same girl from when I touched Emma. She was there in the back corner sitting next to another girl who looked bored out of her mind and was really tall.  
But how could this be? I’ve never met her in my life so how could I suddenly see something from my imagination and it just be here plain as day.  
I nudged Seth, who was sitting next to me, “who's that girl in the corner with short brown hair?”  
“Who?” He then looked to the corner I was talking about, “Oh her, that’s Jamie. Why do you ask?”  
“Just wondering if she looks kind of familiar.”  
“Do you mean she looks like Emma? HA, I guess you see it too.” He laughed, but I just looked at him with a face that read that I clearly didn’t understand what he was talking about.  
“It’s just there is a running joke in our class that Emma and Jamie practically could be twins and if they really wanted to that they could just switch places without anyone knowing.”  
Seth then turned back and started paying attention to the teacher. But even with that explanation it didn’t help with why I could just imagine this girl and poof she's in the same class as me two hours later.  
I didn’t really want to focus on it that much though. So I decided to focus on something else instead or rather someone else.  
From where I was sitting I could see him but only the back of his head. I wondered if he was gsy or bisexual since Seth said there were no gay guys here. I was so busy staring at the back of his head I didn’t hear the bell ring signalling that we were to change where we were going.  
Seth shaked my shoulder, breaking me from my boy spell and I turned to him. He was frowning at me then looked next to him to see that Emma was there with him.  
“You like him don’t you?” he asked.  
I was baffled for a second wondering how he knew just after not even two hours of me meeting Hayden.  
“What! Nah!” I replied.  
“Then explain why you have been staring at the back of his head for the past half hour.” Emma said, stepping up closer to my desk.  
“I was just lost in my head.”  
“Yeah, lost thinking of Hayden making out with you.” Seth said, making Emma laugh.  
“Ok fine, maybe I like him but I barely know the guy.”  
“Well sorry to break it to you man but Hayden is like the straightest white boy that I know.” Emma said, “and I know a lot of straight white boys.”  
“Sorry man, but she's right. Now let's get to the guest speaker.”  
I got up and walked with them but I couldn’t shake the thought of him from my mind. I know I shouldn’t think of him. I don’t even know anything about him except his name but my mind seemed to not care for that, or for how he is straight.  
I didn’t even want a boyfriend this year, I had a nasty breakup with my last boyfriend Julian. Plus I told myself not to get too close to anyone because after this year because I am leaving for college and probably won’t see or talk to any of them after that. But I also wasn’t expecting someone like that to be here.  
My mind is so messed up that I couldn’t even get through the rest of the day without thinking of Hayden. So when school was over and I was walking to my car, telling myself how much of a horrible person that I am, I didn't notice someone shouting my name from the sidewalk or the car coming towards me.  
Suddenly I was thrown with my back to the ground looking up to see that a person was on top of me. It was Hayden, and in that moment I saw the light shine a warm ray right over his head making his hair and eyes go a shade lighter. It was one of the best things I have seen.  
“Are you ok?” He said, looking at me but not budging his body. His hands were by my head and his chest only about a foot away from mine but his legs were on top of me and under different circumstances I could imagine something completely different happening. I shook the thought from my head and replied to him.  
“Yeah, just a bit banged up. I didn’t even see that car coming.”  
Hayden then got up and brought his hand out so that he could help me up. I took it and immediately was flooded with that cold intensity once more. But as soon as I got up he took his hand away from mine.  
“Well I am glad that you are ok.” he said smiling at me.  
“Thank you, I don’t know if i said it before but I owe you one.”  
“I might have to bring that up again one day if you truly mean that.” he laughed then looked at me with a sudden intensity. “Hey, so my family will be gone this weekend so I am having a bonfire at my house and inviting some people over. Would you like to come?”  
I was shocked I knew absolutely nothing about this guy yet every ounce in my body told me to go.  
“Sure why not. I got nothing better to do.”  
He chuckled at that. Ok well I’ll text you the details. He then proceeded to give me his number and instagram username so that I could text him if I needed anything.  
Hayden then said he had to go so that he would see me tomorrow. I turned back and got in my car and with a smile on my face I thought “maybe this year won’t be as bad as I thought.”


	2. The Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying different writing styles so please bare with me

The night air gave a refreshing breeze, giving me goosebumps as I walked through the field. The field was quite large with weeds that came up to my shins making my legs have a scratchy feeling along them. In the field was a single tree where three figures stood crouching on their knees like they were praying to the tree itself. 

As I approached the figures one of them stood up and turned to me as if they could hear me walking towards them. I didn’t feel scared but the energy that was coming from the direction of the figures was almost electrifying making me feel a buzz in my bones and my hairs stand on end. 

The figure was small and they were wearing all black with a dark hood that slightly covered their face.

“What's the update?” I asked

“The spell has been prepared and will happen tomorrow at midnight.” the standing figure replied

“Good. What do you need from me?”

“While we continue the spell from this end we need someone to be able to distract him, calm him down, or put him down if necessary,”

“I thought he wouldn’t be able to feel the spell?”

“Sometimes people don’t but the more power they hold or the closer connection to magic that they have the more a person is able to feel it. You remember what happened when we did the spell on Izzy?”

I winced at the mention of that. I did remember when that happened, after we did the spell Izzy could feel something was wrong within her and she started freaking out. She almost burned down the entire mountainside when that happened. That's why we have the people in a controlled environment now. 

“So who's on watch duty this time?” the figure asked as the two other figures behind her stopped their chanting and walked behind her.

“Hayden is. He is going to be the one who distracts him this time.” 

“Really? I know he has a crush on Hayden but still you want to trust Hayden with this.”

I shrugged in reply. Hayden was not the best decision but it's the best with the situation at hand.

“He shouldn’t be that big of a problem, I mean he has no idea of what he is or what anyone is so he can’t be too powerful. We all had a connection to what we were no matter small unless we were turned into it but he seems to have no connection whatsoever. So he probably won’t even know that the spell is done.” 

The figures nodded looking at one another before turning back to me. As I turned around to exit the field that we were in I heard one of the figures call out to me. 

“Good luck Seth.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first week of school was quite boring to me. Since I was the new kid I was not able to understand a lot of the jokes that people in my classes told or even some of the teachers. 

I was able to make some friends from the people in the class that were other than the group I already met. But as i got to know the different names and faces in the program it was clear that there was a lot of unspoken drama between certain people and groups. 

I found that there were five major groups between the program. The first one was the Crackheads. Consisting of a tall, intimidating girl named Izzy, that one girl I saw on the first day named Jamie. A girl named Bri who had tan skin, black hair, glasses and on the short side, another girl named Athena who had long straight brown hair and usually wore a green denim jacket, and finally a girl named Alyssa who was pretty short but from the little I heard about her was that she had a bit of a temper and you would not want to get on her bad side. 

The second group is considered the Innocents. Filled with a girl with dark toned skin, curly hair named Rena, a Asian girl with a dark pink hair that almost came out red named Emma L. Another girl named Kristen who was shorter and consistently wore a beanie. They were considered to be the innocents because they were a lot calmer than others and no one really heard them talk about anything bad all too much unless they were close with you. 

The third group was the Gamers consisting of a blond guy named Robert who went by Bobby, an Asian guy who was also named Robert but stuck with the name. A tall guy with a brown hair curly afro named James, an indian dude with a slight accent named Azam, and another guy named Conner. 

The fourth group were the ones that I met on the first day of school. But I found that the main people of the group were Emma C, Xion, Hayden, Malachi, Jazzy, and Ashley. They were mostly considered the Jock group if anything since they all played one sport at least.

The last group were considered more the Gossipers. This consisted of a girl named Gabby who had tanned skin and straight brown hair, a girl named Sham who had a more expensive taste. A girl named Bryanna who had blond hair and freckled skin and lastly a girl named Mikayla who people considered to not be a gossiper but she hung out with this group the most. 

The rest of the people in the program were people who could really hang out with anyone on their own or were more the only needs one person to get by type deal. After talking to Seth more I put him in this category cause he seemed to be able to talk to anyone in the class without problems. 

After I put everyone in some type of group it was easier for me to understand some of the background situations of some people especially after talking to Emma and Seth. They explained how there were some rifts between certain people but all in all most people got along pretty nicely except for a handful of kids who they could not stand. The good thing about talking to them two was that I was able to get some dirt or the drama between some people. Like apparently Bobby and Rena went out but Rena also dated another guy in IB named Alex. Alyssa got into a fight before and from the stories I heard she completely destroyed the other girl. And apparently almost every guy had a crush on Emma at one point since her being nice was considered being flirty. 

After getting all the details to better understand people in the program over the week, I decided that the people here wouldn’t be that bad to get to know. I got closer with who I sat next to in my classes and found that my second period Art was gossip time no matter what group you were in. The people that I did get close to were Seth, Emma, Xion, Izzy, Alyssa and lastly Hayden. Although hanging with Hayden was more for me trying to be flirty while also getting to get to know him better while he was being completely oblivious, but from the looks of other people it seemed like they all knew of my not so secret flirtations. 

The only problem that I had was the same problem that I had on my first day of school. Whenever I touched someone some weird feeling would happen and an image, smell or feeling would suddenly take over me. But as I met more people I realized that there seemed to be a pattern for when it happened. This strange sense would only overwhelm me when I touched someone from the IB program, everytime I met someone outside the program and shook their hand or bumped into them in the hall I wouldn’t feel anything. It was as if something was different with the people in the program. 

Not knowing what was happening or why it was happening I decided to try and not touch people from the program as best I could. I think some people took notice and avoided contact with me too seeing that whenever someone would touch me I would freak out. They probably thought something bad happened with me and just decided that they wouldn’t trigger anything, which honestly would be a nice sentiment if that was really what was going on. 

As the first week of school ended I found that the days seemed to blur together and before I knew it it was Saturday night, the night of Hayden’s bonfire party. I decided to wear a black short sleeved shirt with a red and black flannel and a tight pair of blue jeans. 

After saying goodbye to my parents and that I would most likely be out late but I would call them if it was anything after one am. I got in my car and drove to Hayden’s house, by the time I got here the sun had already set and it was pitch black.

I walked to the front door and after seeing that there were some cars parked out front I was more relaxed that I was not the first one there. I knocked on the door and not before long Hayden opened up, he was wearing a white shirt with a pair of black jeans, his hair was a bit messy and I noticed that his hair slightly curled at the top. He was holding a plastic cup full of a clear liquid and from the smell I could tell that it definitely was not water. 

“Hey man! Glad you could make it,” he said stepping out of the way and motioning for me to come in. 

His house was pretty nice from what I could see of it. I could hear the sound of music coming from the outside that was straight ahead of me. 

“Welcome yourself to anything my dude, we got water, pizza, booze anything your heart desires.” 

I followed Hayden to his backyard where I saw that there were actually quite a lot of people here already, about half of the program. To my right was a hot tub, straight ahead of me was a ping pong table where I saw Roy and Seth playing against one another. I looked around and spotted Izzy and Emma C and Jamie talking to one another, I approached them so that I could join their conversation but when I got to them they suddenly got really quiet. 

“Hey guys” I said, “Whatcha you guys talking about?”

“We were… um… just saying… umm-” Emma stammered

“We were ranking people in the program off the willingness to fuck around.” Izzy said flatly as if this was something that happened everyday.

“Ooook.” I said. 

I started chatting with them for a little bit before I started to mingle around the party for a little while talking a bit to everybody. When I checked my phone I saw that it was already eleven thirty, I was shocked that the night was going by so fast. Then suddenly an arm wrapped around me and I felt the full body weight of someone practically drop against me. I quickly grabbed the person who decided I was their personal pillow before I felt a cold sensation all over my body. I turned to the person and saw that it was none other than Hayden. 

“Heyyy mannn, howsss it hannngginnnng.” he said slurring his words, he was obviously so drunk I could smell the alcohol coming off his breath, which suddenly made me aware of how close his face was to mine. 

“Bro your so drunk,” I said

“Noooo your so puuuunk.” I rolled my eyes at him. He probably didn’t know what the hell was going on. I turned to the person closest to me who was Izzy. 

“Hey Izzy, what do I do.” she looked between me and Hayden before motioning with her hand to the inside of the house. 

‘Take him to his room up the stairs, I’m pretty sure that he has a restroom near there if he needs one.” 

I didn;t know why she was telling me to do this. I guess my question did make it sound like I wanted to really help but the last thing I wanted was to take care of my drunken crush for the rest of the night. But being the generous person to my new friend I decided to take him to his room. 

As I headed towards the upstairs Hayden’s feet were dragging the entire time but luckily he and I were about the same height so I could easily drag his feet while holding the rest of his body up. As we got to the middle of the stairs Hayden must have realized that I was taking him from the rest of the party because he started to start pushing me away from him. His hands were pushing at my face trying to get me to let go of him but I knew that if I did let go that he would fall down a flight of stairs and get injured. 

“Hayden, it's ok.” I said to him softly, “we are just going to your room and you can do whatever you like up there.” That seemed to calm him down and I was able to drag him the rest of the way up and in his room, I laid him down on his bed before I went to leave to get a trash can from the bathroom I saw on the way to his room so he could puke in it if needed. 

“Don’t leave.” He said but his face was practically in his pillows and his words were still slurred so it sounded more like “dump me.” 

“I’m just getting a trash can for you bud so you can puke your brains out later.” I said to him and all i heard was a loud hmph before i exited the room. 

I walked down the hall and looked around, seeing all the pictures that were hanging up. I saw a bunch of different girls that I assumed were Hayden’s sisters and then some of a little boy who must have been Hayden. He was a cute kid I had to admit but I still preferred the older version. As I continued my walk down the hall I saw the a clock hanging and now it read eleven fifty-nine, like damn it took me basically half an hour to drag Hayden’s drunk ass upstairs. I walked into the bathroom and found a trashcan in the corner, picked up when the strangest thing happened. 

A sudden burning sensation came over me, it started in my stomach and it felt like my insides were on fire. You know when you eat spicy food and your tongue practically goes numb and all you could feel was heat that's how my stomach felt. I clutched my abdomen when the heat started to spread around my body, it went across my arms and I could practically feel it in my toes. I looked into the mirror and saw that my entire face and body were sweating. The burning sensation didn’t stop or grow in intensity; it just was as if it was waiting for something. 

I started panting and my mouth went dry, I turned to the door and tried to call out to Hayden or anyone but my voice came out raspy and my throat was super dry. When I looked back to the mirror and looked at my face I saw something peculiar. I could practically see my veins as they were glowing. I looked down at my arms and saw that my veins there were glowing a bright white color. I then saw that the veins in my face were slowly growing closer to the top of my head and as the veins grew the intense heat grew with them. I turned on the sink hoping that water would cool me down but as soon as I touched the water it turned to steam. 

The burning in my face only grew until my eyes started to burn and I honestly thought that I was going to go blind with how much pain that I was in. When I looked back to the mirror I saw that my eyes had changed color, they were no longer a dark brown but a brilliantly glowing yellow. But it wasn’t just my pupils, it was my entire eyeball, from the glow that I saw I didn’t even know how I was able to see. As I stared into my eyes and the brining veins finally reached my forehead the world suddenly turned black. 

When I woke up all I could feel was the cold. I slowly opened my eyes which was more of a struggle than I thought it would and found that I was on a tile floor. As I opened   
up my eyes I saw a figure in front of me it was Hayden.

“Hey you ok man?” he asked

I slowly stood up but as I did I got extremely lightheaded and almost fell back to the floor but Hayden caught me. He grabbed my hand in order to help me back up and came into skin on skin contact with me. Instead of the rushing cold this time that I usually felt when I touched him this time I had this overwhelming feeling in my stomach like a craving for something but I could not place what the craving was for. 

I quickly pulled my hand back practically flinching away from him. Hayden took the hint and stepped back letting me get on my feet on my own. When I finally got up I looked at Hayden, he seemed to be doing fine. He wasn't sweating, he seemed aware and he also could smell the alcohol on him but he looked almost sober.

“:Weren’t you drunk like five minutes ago?” I asked

Hayden looked at me and seemed to realize something before sighing and rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

“Uhhh about that…. I was sort of…. Ummm faking the whole thing.”

“Wait. what? Why?” I was confused. Why would he fake being hungover at his own party?

“I was umm…. Distracting you.”

I crossed my arms around my chest and gave him a pointed look that said continue. 

“Well it's kind of hard to explain why but I think it's better if I showed you or had someone else explain it.”

He then motioned for me to follow him and he walked out the door and back towards the party outside. When we got there I saw that everyone seemed to stop partying. The music was turned off, people were sitting around everywhere, and it looked like the table in the middle of the yard was moved and where it sat three figures with one person standing over them.

As the sound of the door opening people turned their heads towards Hayden and I before looking back at the figures in the middle of the room. But the figures weren't anyone mysterious I knew who they were. The person standing over them was Seth and the three figures that were on the floor but were now getting were Emma C, Jamie and Izzy. 

“What's going on?” I said 

Seth just looked at Hayden before saying “What happened?” seeming to ignore my own question. 

“I brought him up like you said but he left my room to get me a throwup bucket and when he didn’t return by midnight I went to find him. I found him on the floor completely unconscious.” 

Seth nodded then turned to Emma and asked “Did something go wrong?”

“Well we didn’t get the information that we needed but I don’t know why he passed out in the bathroom.” 

“Will someone please explain to me what in the hell is going on!” I yelled.   
Seth turned to me and looked in my eyes before walking towards me. He put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes.

“Calm down, we are just figuring out what happened, care to shed some light.” 

“Do not tell me to calm down,” I yelled at him shoving his hand off my shoulder. Seth looked shocked looking at his hand before returning to a neutral look. “As for what happened, I have no idea and why would I tell you when you aren’t even telling me anything.”

There was a silence among the people, no one explaining anything or trying to give some sort of explanation, in fact most of the people just looked away. Then Alyssa stepped up and walked over to Izzy who handed her a bag of something. She then approached me at the same time reaching into the bag.

“Rafael this is going to sound crazy and I don’t expect you to understand anything that's going on or to even believe what I am about to say but just know it's the truth.” she paused before continuing, “You see those three over there” pointing at Izzy, Jamie and Emma. “They were performing a spell that would help us find out what you are.” 

I gave her a quizzical look “What do you mean what I am?” 

She sighed, “In simple terms what are you supernaturally. I’m sure you have noticed but we are different from other IB programs because our class is fully made from people of other origins…. the supernatural.”

I started laughing at her, “You're joking right, the supernatural doesn't exist.”

“They do actually but we live in secret. Everyone here is something supernatural.” She paused before finally continuing “including you.”

What? This had to be a joke there was no such thing as the supernatural that was all just scary stories or myths. But ever since I got here there was something strange about this place but more specifically about this class. And what about all the weird things that were happening to me, the feelings, visions, smells I got when touching people and now the glowing eyes and veins that I saw in the bathroom. My mind started reeling and breathing started to pick up. I could practically feel my heart beating in my chest. I realized that I was having a panic attack but Alyssa seemed to be prepared for it. She uncoiled her hand showing a powder that she got from the bag given to her by Izzy, she then proceeded to blow the dust in my face.

My mind slowed down and I felt a lightness like a fog lifting. I could see Alyssa in front of me but she was getting blurrier by the second and soon I closed my eyes and gave into the pull into the weightless feeling.


	3. The Truth

I don't know where I am but what I did know was that I felt free. I couldn’t feel my body or anything around me, everything just felt light. I could remember who I was but I didn’t care. I could feel the weight off my shoulders of all the terrible things in my life. Could hear the memories of my past just leaving.

“ _You're not good enough.”_

_ “Who would ever want to be with you.” _

_ “Gay is just another word for failure.” _

_ “I don’t love you, Rafael. I never did” _

The words didn’t hurt me like they did before this time they just passed through my mind and left forever to be in the void. It felt as if my soul was leaving all my earthly attachments go.

But suddenly they all came rushing back my failures, disappointment, regrets, loves everything in my life crashing into me at the same time. The process was overwhelming me. I felt as if my mind was being shattered and I could suddenly start feeling the rest of my body. I could feel my toes tingling and I could feel my fingers twitching. 

I suddenly shot up and I looked around where I saw the inside of my room. My pride flag on my opposite wall from me with a tv under it. I looked towards my window to the left and saw that it was morning. When I looked at my phone it said that it was 6:30am but what truly puzzled me was that it said it was Monday. 

That made no sense. I was literally at Hayden’s party which was definitely on Saturday night plus how did I even get home. I thought of the events of what happened to see if I could remember what happened. That's when I remembered what Alyssa told me that night and what happened in the bathroom. None of it made sense, there could not be such a thing as supernaturals could there? It would help explain what happened to me in the bathroom. But if I am a supernatural then what am I? And what is everyone else?

I had a realization in that moment. The weird things that I saw when I touched a person I know would only happen with the IB kids but what if it was only with supernaturals. It had to be maybe when a supernatural touches someone its like an identifier or something. It could be how they found me in the first place. But then again it didn’t happen until school started. 

“Honey, it's time for school!” I heard my mom call snapping me from my thoughts. 

I got out of bed and realized I was in different clothes but what really threw me off was I was in different underwear and had pajama bottoms on. I scrambled and grabbed some clothes before coming downstairs where I heard loud laughter coming from the kitchen. When I walked in I saw my mom laughing with someone and that someone was Hayden.

“Oh look who's finally up.” Hayden said

“What are you doing here?” I replied 

“What are you talking about sweetie. Hayden has been here the entire weekend. Ever since the party.” My mother replied nonchalantly 

I was more than confused. My mother never let anyone sleep over especially a boy ever since I came out to her. So why all the sudden would she allow a person to sleep over all weekend.

“Wasn’t the party at your house?” 

“Well yeah, but you and I had a chat and I told you how I don’t like to be by myself so you invited me over, remember.” 

“No. No I don’t.”

Hayden just chuckled at that “Sure next thing you're gonna say you don’t remember how Seth dropped us off here because we had one too many drinks. And the whole boys day we had yesterday together.”

My mom approached me, grabbing my face inside of her hands, “Are you sure you're okay sweetie?” At that moment I heard a loud knocking noise.

“That must be Seth. Come on Raf we need to get to school.” 

My mom dazed for a moment let go of me and said, “have a great day, I’ll see you later.”

Before I could register what was going on I had my backpack thrusted to me and was rushed to the door and before I knew it I was in the backseat of Seth’s car. 

“What the fuck is going on!” I said

I saw Seth look at me through the middle view mirror of the car and then heard him sigh. “Look what do you remember?”

“What do I remember! The last thing I fucking remember is being hit with some sort of powder then poof I’m here! So why don’t you explain how I fucking missed an entire day and what the hell happened?” 

“Dude chill.” Hayden said. In that moment, crush or no crush I have never wanted to strangle someone so much in my life. I Saw Seth reach over with one hand and touch Hayden’s arm, I could see Hayden visibly relax. 

“I hate it when you do that.” he said

“You may hate it but it's quite effective.” Seth replied. He then looked at me and said, “If that’s the last thing you remember then you should remember what Alyssa said to you…. about supernaturals.”

“I do.” I said simply making sure that my tone displayed that I did not believe it at all. 

“Well then you should remember us explaining how everyone in IB is someone supernatural.”

“That can’t be true. I was in Ib at my old school and people were definitely not supernatural there. Bitches maybe but not supernatural.” 

“Ok well not technically all of IB. Just our grade level at our school. Something to do with an experiment to see if they get better results or something like that.The point is that we are all supernatural here for example Hayden here is a vampire.”

Hayden looked back at me before smiling at me and I saw two fangs come from the top of his mouth that slid out from the top of his gums. I am secure enough in my masculinity to say that I made a noise that was not very manly. 

Hayden just laughed before saying, “its ok I don't drink human blood at least not from the source I drink from blood bags. So no harm no death.”

I did not want to believe them but in some small part of my brain it all made sense. The fangs, what happened in the bathroom, why I can’t seem to touch anyone. I was not saying I was a true believer but I was not denying what was happening at the same time. 

We made it to school and Seth parked into his parking spot then turned his entire body so that he could look at me. 

“Look I know you must have a million questions and wondering what you are and what everyone else is so why don’t I explain when class starts. Since we did not get our free day last friday it being the first week of school I convinced the principal and teachers that we could get two free days this week.” 

I just nodded and followed him and Hayden out of the car. It seemed like they were headed to the big gym. When we got there the bell rang signaling that it was time for the first period. I saw a girl coming up to me who I recognized to be Izzy.

“Oh thank goodness you're here Seth. You were running late and we thought Zoe was going to have to run the meeting.” Seth just groaned before Izzy continued, “Yeah I know.”

“Tell me again how she got voted Vice President.” Seth said 

“Dang shade Seth.” Izzy then looked at me. “He’s here so I am guessing that it didn’t work. I guess today's training will just be orientation.” Seth just nodded. 

At that Izzy left. Hayden grabbed my arm but luckily he grabbed a clothed part of it so I didn't feel anything when he touched me. He led me to the bleachers where the rest of our Senior class was sitting. We sat more to ourselves in the front rows. Seth didn’t sit down but instead he stood in the middle of the room.

“Morning everyone! I know we are excited to have our free day but I do have an announcement before we start. I know you all know that we have a new student and we have correctly identified him as one of us so today I will be showing him around all the people so prepare to show off for him.”

At that everyone just dispersed. I saw many people group up but Hayden led me to Seth before going to a group of kids himself. I looked at Seth waiting for instruction on what to do.

“Ok. So I am going to first show you to the major factions before we start going into the others. The first faction we have are the witches.” 

Seth led me to a group of three, Jamie, Izzy and Emma C. I remember Alyssa saying that they performed a spell on me at the party at the same moment that everything went to shit for me.

“So you guys are the ones that made everything happen in the party.”

I saw Emma wince at that before Izzy spoke.

“Yes and no. We did perform a spell at the party whatever happened to you that was not us. You see witches can do spells easily but we all specialize in certain fields. Like Emma and Jamie here they specialize in shapeshifting, you can often find them shapeshifting into one another.”

At that Jamie stepped forward and her form changed into an exact replica of Emma. The face of utter amazement that I had must have been a funny one because Jamie-Emma was laughing. 

“I however,” Izzy continued, “specialize in pyro-magic. But when witches come together we can perform stronger spells. The other day Seth came to us asking us to do a spell at Hayden’s party, a spell that would help us identify you.”

“Wait,” I turned to Seth. “you guys do not know what I am?”

“No we don’t. The way we find people is through some magical artifact which leads us to everyone here but we do not know what anyone is.” Seth interrupted

“As I was saying. We did an identifying spell on you like we do with all students but something backfired and we don’t know what, We have some theories but we are not sure what truly caused it.”

“Theories?’ 

“Yeah. One is that we did something wrong in the spell but we think that is very unlikely. Our second theory is that whatever you are you have a resistance to anything magic. We actually have some evidence of that in three different instances so that is the theory we are going with for now.”

‘What instances?”

“Well one you didn’t respond to our spell. Secondly, you didn’t respond to Seth,,,”

“Wait, respond to Seth what does that mean?” Then I remember that Seth touched me at the party telling me to calm down. Then I remembered him touching Hayden in the car and Hayden immediately calmed down himself. I turned to Seth. “What are you?” 

“I am a Siren.” At my confused expression Seth continued “basically I have a strong persuasion over anyone I am near but it bests work when I touch somebody. At the party I grabbed you and told you to calm down. That was a lot of power that I flowed through you but you acted like nothing happened before freaking out more.”

I nodded then turned back to Izzy telling her to continue.

“The last instance was that the spell on the powder did not work. It was a knockout drug which did work but it was also spelled to make you lose any memory that you had, allowing us to have some time to figure out what the hell happened.” 

“So your saying essentially all you know about me is that I can not be affected by any magic.”

Izzy just nodded. “If I had any information on anything that I could do would that happen to help you with anything in finding out what I am?”

This got the rest of the witches attention. They turned to me waiting for me to continue.

“Well you see ever since I got here whenever I touch someone I one of my senses overwhelms me. Like a vision of an image, a smell, a taste, or even a feeling. But it only ever happens when I touch someone in IB other times it just feels like I am touching a normal person.”

“Interesting.” Jamie said, “tell me what are the exact instances that have happened so far?”

“Well when I first touched Seth I got an overwhelming smell of the ocean. When I touched Emma I saw an image of you actually. The next one two things happened, I touched Hayden and would get an overwhelming feeling of cold ;like an emptiness. Then after the spell he touched me and I could taste iron and had a very strong hunger.’

“Hmm,” Jamie thought for a second. “From what it sounds like you can identify what type of creature is just by touching a person. Seth ancestors come from the ocean hence the smell. Emma has a specialty in shapeshifting magic and is always changing into me. Hayden is a vampire in which they do not feel temperature while the blood they drink tastes like iron and from what he has told me they have an overwhelming hunger.” 

“I have never heard of such a creature.” Izzy said, “but we will look into it.” At that the rest of them nodded before huddling together and continuing to talk.

At that Seth started walking to another group, this one much larger. 

“This is the vampire faction.” This group consisted of Hayden, Bobby, Athena and Bryanna. I saw that Hayden and Bryanna were having a sparring match at the moment so Seth and I were standing next to Athena and Bobby. 

“The vampires,” Seth continued. “These kids are pretty simple. There are many myths and legends based on what they are. But not all aspects of the myths are true. But I’ll let one of them explain it to you.”

At the moment Seth stopped speaking I heard a big smack and when I turned I saw Hayden standing over Bryanna who had her back to the floor. Hayden then saw us and waved before helping Bryanna up and then walking towards us. 

“Hey guys,” he said. “Whatcha need?”

“I was just explaining to Raf each creature's powers.”

“Cool, cool. So you're on vampires now well let me be your guide. Vampires of course feed on blood the more blood we feed on the stronger our powers become. This can cause some power hungry people who just feed for fun. You also are stronger if you suck the blood from the source. But here we do not allow that so we drink from blood bags. Has enough for us to be able to protect ourselves if needed but not enough that we come bloodthirsty monsters. As for our powers we are stronger and faster than the average human being, we can see into the dark if we concentrate. But we also have some limitations that come from our powers. We are technically dead so our bodies do not produce any heat making us cold to the touch.”

“What about the other legends like sunlight and garlic?” I asked

“Well we keep our allergies from when we were human so we can be allergic to certain things. As for the sunlight we do not have too long exposure we actually get sunburned pretty easy but if we are out there for more than seven hours in direct sunlight then yeah we can combust but that is pretty rare. Oh! Also we technically never age so this will be my appearance for the rest of my life we can still grow our hair and everything but nothing in height. Other than that, that’s pretty much everything about vampires. Any questions?”

“Yeah just one. How did you become a vampire.” 

“Ah, well you see a vampire has to turn you by giving you there blood since it has special healing powers like most creatures do but with vampires our blood is more powerful allowing us to come back from the dead if we die with that healing blood in our system.”

“Wait so how did you die?” That seemed to strike a nerve in the group of vampires all of them looked away from me and started to pick at their neck, clothes or just ignore that I existed. I guess it was a touchy subject. 

“Oook I guess we will move onto the next group.” Seth said, leading me to the group next to the vampires. I saw Lila, Xion, Ethan and Alex. We walked to them; they were all just huddled together talking. “These are the werewolves.”

Lila looked over at us and waved then signaled with her hand and everyone stopped talking and made room in a circle for Seth and I. 

“Hey there Raf.” Lila greeted me “we are the werewolf faction. We together are a pack and like most myths you hear we turn into wolves every full moon. But we can turn into one whenever we want, we also have enhanced strength, speed can see from far away and at night.”

“You guys are pretty similar to the vampires.” I said. Lilas smile faltered but just for a second was barely even noticeable.

“I guess but we are from a different bloodline than they are. You can create vampires but you can only be born a werewolf. As with all packs there is an Alpha and I am that Alpha. Although some people may think Ethan is sometimes because he is more aggressive to people or Xion because she is more pushy I am the alpha. I lead our little pack because I can maintain my cool but also can be the most dangerous if needed.” 

“Good to know.”

“Ok next we have Alyssa, Bryan and Gabby. The demon faction.” Seth said

“I’m sorry you said demon?”

“That’s right.”

“Like evil people who turn you to sin and are from hell. Those kinds of demons.”

Seth sighed. “Look no need to be nervous just let them explain to you what they are. They are honestly quite harmless.”

When we walked over I made sure to stand more close to Seth, even though I knew these kids I was always taught from a young age that demons were creatures that would make you go to hell. 

Alyssa came over and looked at how close I was standing to Seth before sighing. “He has reservations on us doesn’t he.” Seth just nodded in response. “Well that’s just great.’

Alyssa looked at me before saying “look yes we are demons” motioning with her hand at “Bryan and Gabby. We do not hurt people or cast people to hell or make people sin. That’s what true demons do, we are only part demons.” My face must have shown some confusion. “Demons are just fallen Angels that were cast out of Heaven. These are true demons there are like seven or so of them. From that demons have had affairs with humans which in turn created partly demons. These offspring can choose to continue their demon nature and go through the Hell route of casting people to sin but they can also choose to have a normal life and age and die. The ones who do choose the humanity route can also have demon offspring's leading to thousands of demon species. We are some of these offspring's that come from demon offspring's that have chosen a human route to our life. We can have certain powers based on what species we come from and the closer the lineage to the true demon the more powerful the demon. My power or my specialty is illusions. Gabby's silence. Bryan’s belief.?"

“I understand the illusions but silence and belief?” 

“Gabby can basically make anything mute and Bryan can make you believe what is not really true. Although Bryan does not use his as much cause it is a more powerful trait in demons used to cast out people's belief in their religion so he does not like to use it that much.”

“But that sounds like a lot of what Seth is.”

“Seth’s power is persuading other people into things or thoughts but Bryan is actually making them believe what he wants full heartedly. People can resist Seth but it becomes harder the more power he puts into it but Bryan one touch of his power makes you believe it and then there is no changing that unless the person decides not to believe in it. But as you may know it's hard to not make someone believe in something.”

“Ok I guess that makes sense. But if you guys are choosing to go human why do you still have your powers shouldn’t you be fully human?”

“Basically when you turn eighteen a demon offspring can choose the demon route or human route. This decision is definite and can not be undone by anything known to man. But we aren’t eighteen yet so we still have a decision to make. Now the more we use the powers that we have the more enticing our demon side becomes. So we try to use them that much but sometimes we need to, that's why we do not really practice our gifts like other people. A person can choose what path they want before they turn eighteen but none of us have chosen because we do not know if our gifts will ever be needed so we keep them for now.”

“I’ll admit you guys are by far the most complicated faction here.”

“That would be because we are probably the oldest of all the factions and the more ancient the rarer and more confusing it becomes.”

“Why is that?”

“Honestly I have no idea.”

Alyssa's calming voice and deep description confused me but it honestly helped me see that all what I was told about demons were not fully tree and that these people, my friends, were really trying to be good people. It would probably make me feel safer if they already chose their route but I understand you never know when your skills would be needed.

I could tell Alyssa was still weary about me. She probably still wondered what my thoughts were on demons. To show a gesture of faith and goodwill I held out my hand for her to show that I would be there for her. I saw Seth look very closely and stiffen when I held my hand out knowing that my gift would activate if she took it. And took it she did, when Alyssa touched me nothing happened at first and I almost sighed in relief but then something else happened. 

I saw a vision but this one was unlike the one I saw of Emma which was just a person in a field of white this was more like a scene. I was looking at Alyssa. She was above me and when I looked down I saw that I was crouching on the floor on my knees but there was a body on top of me. Lying down was Hayden, his eyes were shut and he was paler than normal, there was dried blood on his lips and dripping from his mouth. When I looked back up at where I saw Alyssa I saw that she was staring at me, her eyes wet and pleading. I saw dark lines forming across her body slowly crawling to her face and eyes. They looked like the lines that were on me when I was in the bathroom but this time they were black as if the darkness was engulfing her. I saw that she had a knife in hand already bloody. She approached me and I looked down again. My hand was on Haydens chest and I removed it. I saw that there was blood under it. A stab wound. When I looked back up Alyssa was now over me, her eyes now black and the last thing I saw was her open her mouth before she was engulfed in flames. 

When I came back I saw that my hand was still with Alyssa’s but that there seemed to be something around us, a glow of some sort. When I looked closer I saw that the glow was a bunch of butterflies around us, I was in awe that it almost made me forget my vision. 

“What is this?” I whispered

“This is what I can do. Or what I choose to do.” Alyssa said calmly. 

I looked back at Alyssa. She didn’t look like she could harm a person in this moment but I saw what my vision showed and from what I saw Alyssa maybe not today but someday is going to go full demon and hurt Hayden in the process. 

I slipped my hand away from hers looking at the floor. I heard Alyssa sigh and then the sound of footsteps getting farther and farther away. When I looked up I saw Seth.

“What did you see?” he asked

“I don’t know what you mean.” I said flatly

“I know you saw something she touched you with skin contact you had a vision of identifying what she is. I want to know what it is that you saw?” 

I cursed to myself already forgetting that I told Seth that I see things when I touch people. But what did I see. Was it a vision of the future? It couldn’t be I always just saw what people were or a hint of what they were nothing this real. But it was real or at least it felt real. The stickiness of the blood on my hand, the pale color of Hayden's skin as he was dying and the black tendrils on Alyssa’s face as she was consumed by fire. 

“I just saw blackness. Makes sense if she is a demon.” saying the lie easily not wanting to tell the other man what really happened. 

Seth looked at me for a moment before nodding and walking towards the next group. I quickly started following him catching up to the man quite easily.

“The next groups are more simple in their powers and nothing too confusing in what they are.” 

When we got to the next group I saw Emma L, Kristen and Sham together. 

“These are our ghost faction. They don’t normally like talking about themselves so I’ll explain to you what they are. Ghosts are people who have died but were cursed while they were alive. This curse made them come back from the dead so that they would suffer more. Our ghost faction are from different time periods and the only reason they are here is that they wanted to actually get an education because from when they were from there was no proper education for them”

“So when are they from?” 

“Emma L is from the 1800’s, Sham the 1400’s and Kristen from the 1900’s.”

It made sense nothing to complicated. I wanted to ask why they were cursed in the first place but I was afraid to ask because I did not want to offend them like I did with the vampires in asking about their death.

“Ok. I understand. What’s next?”

“Next we have Mal and Zoe they are our genie faction. They can grant wishes and before you ask they do ot limit you to three wishes per person. What does happen is the genie gets to choose what wishes they want to grant or not. They also can only give you what their interpretation of the wish is. So say I explain something vaguely and they think I am talking about something else then they would grant me what they were thinking and not what I was thinking.” 

“How were genies created.”

“I am not quite sure there is a lot of lore on them but no real answers. That is what happens with a lot of us; we do not know our full heritage, only what we can gather from mythology.”

Do you know your heritage?” 

“Not to the full extent I know I have a relation to mermaids and the sea but I do not know much more than that.”

I nodded it all made sense. I did not know anything of my own heritage or my real heritage. If I was some type of creature my only way of finding anything out was probably going to be mythology.

“The next faction…” Seth continued “...is what I call the Greek faction. This is only because they all originate from Greek mythology. First we have our resident Nature Nymph Ashley. Then our water Nymphs Bri and Makayla. Our Centaur Colin. Our Satyr’s James and Connor. And Lastly our Cupid Roy.”

“Ok. You threw a lot of info out right there so I am still confused. Can you briefly explain what they can do.”

Seth chuckled at that. “Yeah I forget you're new to this. Nymphs have basic control over whatever element they pertain too. Centaur’s can transform from half horse to a normal human. Satyrs are more guides in nature and are more attuned to the needs of nature. Lastly Cupids can help people fall in love but they do not fall in love easily. They help people fall in love based on what type of Cupid they are, Roy is descended from the Cupid of desire so he can make people feel more desire for something or someone. Plus if you are near him more you feel more strongly for the person you have a desire for.”

“That sounds like a lot of persuasion.”

“Yeah. You’ll find that a lot of our powers intertwined just with different affects. Bryan can affect the mind and feelings permanently, I can affect who I touch based on people will but Roy has more of an area affect but his arrows are the focus of his powers.”

I nodded in understanding. It did sound like everyone was somewhat similar, like how Vampires and Werewolves have most of the same things just with some differences in who they were. 

“How many more groups are there?” I asked

“Only four supernatural people left. First is Jazzy. She is a fairy which basically means she can fly but I am not sure on the rest of her powers. Then Azam is a Wendigo which is usually a monster who is a cannibal but Azam basically just has some strange tendencies but he definitely does not eat people. Then we have Rena. She is a Kitsune. They are more tricksters to people but can also shapeshift, their powers grow the older they become. Lastly is Robert L. He is a gremlin which I basically just see as an annoying pest but they are very smart and able to figure out problems with ease. And that's everyone.” 

To be honest my mind was just in shock. There were so many people who were different things here. I do not think I could fully comprehend because part of me didn’t even believe what I was hearing. But the other part of me just keeps playing the visions I had and what happened at the part two days ago. I was so deep in my own thought that I didn’t hear Seth calling my name. When I looked back up at him Seth was giving me a quizzical look.

“What?”

“I called your name like five times.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Anyways did you have any questions for me?”

I shook my head. There were definitely questions I had but I just needed to process what was happening before I started questioning everything. 

I heard the bell ring signaling that it was break. I saw the rest of the class file out of the gym and start heading in different directions. I followed Seth still in somewhat of a daze, he went and got food before we started going to Morris room. When we entered I saw that most of the class was also in here. Izzy and Jamie were doing karaoke in the front of the room and Seth sat down next to Alyssa, Mal and Emma C, I took a seat next to him. 

“So what do you guys normally do these days? And what am I doing the rest of the days?”

“Well normally.” Mal said, “We practice whatever [owers we have but most of us have a good control over them since we have been practicing for years now. So we usually mess around with our powers with one another.”

“As for you..” Seth said, “We want to start testing what we know of you so far. We know you have some sort of magic resistance so we want to see the extent of that. We are gonna have people test their powers on you and see what happens. But if you feel at all uncomfortable then we can also stop for the day and just take it easy.”

I appreciate the sentiment and I would use that excuse but I found myself wondering what were my limits. It seemed like everyone had some limit so I wondered what the extent of my unknown powers were.

The bell rang again and we were soon off towards the gym once again. Everyone went back to the bleachers while Seth again went towards the front standing ready to give a speech.

“Ok everyone now that we gave Raf a proper welcome and explanation you are now free to do what you want. But I do need at least one person from every faction to come with me and Raf. I am sorry if you're the only person in your species but we are going to be testing Raf’s powers and need everyone's help.”

I heard some groans and got up following Seth to the front of the room. Others were just talking to one another and I even saw some get out some books and worksheets to start working on homework. 

I made my way to the floor seeing the rather large group of people. They formed a semi circle with Seth in the middle who motioned me to come to their side. I made my way to him and he put his hand on my shoulder before looking to the rest of the group.

“Everyone listen to me closely!” He shouted his voice becoming calm and soothing, projecting off the walls. I soon saw everyone turn to Seth even the people on the bleachers turned. I knew Seth must have used some of his powers to get everyone's attention, but I didn’t feel compelled to listen to him if anything it just sounded like he was speaking to a group normally.

“Thank you everyone who volunteered..” Seth continued. “We still do not have an idea of what Raf is exactly but we do know some of what he can do. So far what we know is that if Seth comes in contact with anyone supernatural then he gets an overwhelming sense of smell, feeling, or a vision hinting to what the person is. He also has some sort of magical barrier on him preventing any type of magic from affecting him.”

He then turned to me and asked…

“Did you feel anything when I touched you?”

I shook my head no.

“You see all of you in this room were persuaded to listen to me and you did. Here Raf is at the center of my power with my hand also on him and he still feels no affect towards me. So what I would like is to test this.”

“Test how?” Roy spoke up

“I want to see if it's just magic in general or if it pertains to if he can only repel magic for a certain amount of magic at a time. I would also like to test what he senses from everyone when he touches them. Now if he feels uncomfortable at any time he can stop whenever he wants.”

Everyone nodded at that understanding of what was expected from everyone. Seth continued…

“Then let's begin!”


	4. Julian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning Implied Sexual Content

It was two months later right before Halloween before anything interesting happened. I was training every week with a faction to see what type of resistance I had to them as well to see if I had anything in common with them to help find my lineage. 

The first day we trained two months ago I had to shake the hands of every person in the IB club to see what I had “sensed” from them. I found that when I touched another supernatural that I had one of two reactions. One was some piece of their power would identify themselves to me like the cold from a vampire, the strength of a werewolf etc. The other thing I would feel is more pertained to the person and their specialty. When I touched Izzy I felt like my hand was burned but when I touched Bri's hand an overwhelming cool flowed through me Like being submerged in water. 

Over the next few months the touching became normal and my “sense” did not overwhelm me as it did when I first got here. 

As for my other talent of magic resistance. Every week I would be put against someone seeing how their magic affected me. So far it seemed like nothing could affect me unless it was more of it affects something else that could hurt me. Like Bri could control water and Izzy more fire those could hurt me because they were manipulating something else and not a person. But Roy and Seth could not do anything cause they were more affecting the individual. We also found that any type of magical healing did not affect me or any type of spell that was supposed to affect just me. I was ok with this but it made the witches a little uneasy that any type of magical healing was unable to affect me. 

I carried on with school taking time to adjust to what I would now consider my new life. But I also needed to focus on my studies, I started to put the weirdness of my life on the backburner as did most of IB. I joined some clubs from school to get more involved and polish my college applications. 

I often wondered why this specific class was all of supernatural people so one day in art I asked Izzy.

“Well,” she said, “from my understanding we are supposed to be the test dummies for a new type of program. They want to make one where supernatural are the ones taking harder classes. I am not sure why but they believe that because we are different from normal people that we can handle more. But over the years kids have dropped IB because it is hard.”

“Like how Robert and Connor left.”

“Yeah, everyone was surprised that they dropped IB. But hey sometimes people just need a break, I can understand that.”

“Has anyone talked to them since?”

“I know some people like James. But since they aren’t in the program they do not have an excuse for using their powers on free days cause they do not get them.”

As I continued my studies and progress reports came out I seemed satisfied with my grades allowing myself time to breath. That’s when I received an invite by Izzy about a party at her house on Halloween night. Since I had nothing better to do I decided that I would go. 

The party was this Saturday and what made me nervous was the day before I had training with the demon faction. I had not talked to Alyssa or the rest of the demons since our first free day going out of my way to avoid them at all cost. I think they knew what I was doing and gave me time to adjust. 

I know that they weren’t bad or evil. But I was raised in a very strict household of what is good or not. Saying that all evil temptations were demons and the stories of how you need to be on guard and resist them at all times. So when I found out that people I know were demons themselves, I just didn’t know what to think. But I was going to have to face them eventually and I guess training on Friday was going to have to be that day. 

“Raf!” someone shouted, knocking me out of my thoughts. I looked and saw that it was Xion.

“Huh, what?”

“Damn you were thinking hard. I was asking if your coming this Saturday?”

“To the Halloween party, yeah.”

“So what is gonna be your gift?”

“What gift?”

“You're joking right?” At my face she seemed to see that I was in fact not joking.

“Right, you're new to this. Well Halloween is basically the day of witches. So it's customary to give a gift to witches for good fortune. That's what this party really is though, to honor the coven at our school.”

“Oh.” was all I could say. 

Now I had to go get a gift. But did I have to give one to all three of them or just one of them? I should just get one for all of them just in case. But what to give them. Later that day I went to Target and grabbed a bunch of scented candles, salt and some candy for all of them. Hoping that it would be enough. 

After getting the gift. I texted Hayden who I was talking to more and saw what he thought. He said that it looked well and that it should be enough. 

We began texting after that about how school was and everything. When he started asking me how my training was going. I hesitated but eventually I told him my nervousness about training with demons with my background. But he responded by laughing telling me that I shouldn’t worry that if they were dangerous in any way they would not have been allowed in the program at all. 

But what caught me off guard was later when it was more late in the night he asked me a question and I almost threw my phone on the spot

**Hayden**

So do you like anyone at the school yet?

**Raf**

Yeah everyone has been really cool I like them all

**Hayden**

No I meant like do you like like someone

**Raf**

What? Why?

**Hayden**

Are you really telling me that you don’t like anyone

Bro you've been here like two and a half months now

**Raf**

Well maybe….

Do you like someone 

**Hayden**

Yeh ofc

**Raf**

Who

**Hayden**

You know that one girl Ashley

Shes in IB

Bro

Hello

I know you saw this

Why aren't you answering 

The consistent buzz of my phone was heard, but I refused to acknowledge it. Instead I put my phone on silent telling myself that I would deal with it later.

I know its stupid to get so hungover on such a stupid crush but I couldn’t help it. People warned me that he was straight but hearing that he liked some girl from our class just seemed to strike something close to my heart. 

I didn’t want to acknowledge my feelings. They always seem to backfire on me. Especially after my last relationship.

It was sophomore year when I found a group of people that I would fit in with. I was top of my class in Arizona high school and nothing could get in my way of that. Well I thought nothing could.

His name was Julian. He had dark black hair and brilliant blue eyes. He was tall and more well reserved seeming to be more of a loner than anything. But he caught my eye and when I fall for someone I usually fall hard. 

He was also in the IB program at our school and I found that we sat next to one another in most classes. We didn’t speak much but I always seemed to be staring at him.

One day we were picking partners for a project and he turned to me before asking me if I would be his. It took everything in my power to not squeal with joy. We decided to meet up after school to work on it and he gave me his number. 

Soon we started to talk to him about more things that didn’t include school. I found that he was a big reader and loved dark novellas. He was always interested in the path of the villain usually and what made them do what they did. He was an enigma but it only made me like him more. 

We were out one night a month after we started texting more when he kissed me. It was nothing like I imagined, his lips were soft but seemed to have an added persistence in them. Like he was rushing, I took it as him being nervous at the time. 

We dated for a while and I honestly thought we would have dated longer. I made sure to have patience with him and allow him to open up to me and I thought that I knew him but I guess I was wrong. 

It was the middle of Junior year and it seemed like Julian and I were bickering more and more. It wasn’t even about coherent things I would say something and he thought I was being sarcastic or something. I thought he was being too reserved and not telling me something. 

“Are you hiding something from me?”

“I don’t know what you want from me Raf.”

“I want you to be honest. Honest to me. Honest to yourself”

He looked down, we were at my house and my parents were gone for the weekend. Over the year and almost three months that we were dating we were able to do this a couple times where we were able to just be ourselves with one another. But it seemed like Julian was just holding back. 

“I don’t know if I could do that. Everything would change.”

“Change is inevitable. It's how we react to it that counts.”

Julian smiled at me and then came to sit next to me on my bed. He started to kiss me, I could feel his hand in my hair while his other one seemed to be tugging my shirt. I moaned into the kiss grabbing his own shirt and pulling it above his head.

That was the last time we spent together.

When I woke up later. I saw him sitting at the edge of my bed getting dressed. 

“Where are you going? Come back to bed.”

He just shook his head. Before getting up and getting the rest of his clothes on.

“I’m sorry I can’t do this anymore.”

“What do you mean? Just come back to bed we can talk about this.”

He shook his head again.

“I’m sorry. It's over Raf.”

“What do you mean it's over.”

“You and I, we are done.”

“You can’t just say we are done after this. Without any explanation at all!” I yelled in anger. Before calming my voice I said “I love you Juilan”

“I know. Raf that's the problem.” He paused for a moment. “I don’t love you, Rafael. I never did.”

At that he left. Leaving me behind. The next day at school it was like nothing ever happened between us. I saw him but he never looked me in the eyes and the classes we sat next to each other he was suddenly moved to the other side of class.

That’s what made this move a bit easier just because I felt like I could start over here. But it seemed like my heart had other plans. Although I didn’t love Hayden I definitely had a fascination with him. So when he told me that he liked someone else it just brought back all the pain of what Julian had done to the forefront of my mind. 

I went to bed dreaming about my breakup going over and over again but instead of Julian it was Hayden rejecting me. I woke up the next day regretting what to come for training. 

The morning went by quickly and before I knew it I was in the gym surrounded by Alyssa, Bryan and Gabby.

“First, we want to see what you see when you shake our hands.” Alyssa said

They approached and Bryan held out his hand. I prepared myself for whatever was about to come. I reached out my hand shaking and gripped Bryans hand.

What was not prepared for was nothing to happen. I just started at the hand, let go and then grabbed it again. But still nothing.

“Whats happening.”

I hesitated unsure. I went up to Gabby. Nothing. Then Alyssa and still nothing. I was not having any sort of reaction to them whatsoever. This didn’t make sense when Alyssa shook my hand the first time I saw that vision. But what if that wasn’t my identifier power what if it was something else something new. 

“Raf what's going on?”

I hesitated. If I told them what was going on they would tell Seth. Who I already told that I saw blackness when Alyssa shook my hand that one time. So I lied.

“Nothings, wrong it's just weird.” I say trying to keep my voice calm

“How so?”

“I just see blackness when I touch you guys. But only for a second then it’s gone.”

The others nodded accepting what I said. I sighed in relief that they bought what I said. 

“Now,” Alyssa said, “ We want to see how your resistance to magic goes against us.”

I panicked for a second. If my identification didn’t work on them then there is a possibility that their powers would.

“Since mine are just illusions and we already know you see those then we just want to test Gabby and Bryan then. First will be Gabby.”

Gabby approached me. She was about two feet in front of me. Gabby said her power was silence but I didn’t know how that would affect me. 

She gave me a hard look. And soon the talking in the background died down and the ringing in my ears became louder. I looked to Alyssa and saw that her lips were moving but I could not hear anything. My eyes widened in shock and I quickly turned around and saw that many people were having conversations in the gym. But I couldn’t hear a thing. The ringing in my eyes became the only sound that I could hear. I didn’t even hear my own breathing so I didn’t know that it was picking up and I was going into panic mode. 

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around and saw Alyssa there. Suddenly the sound came back. The voices around me were there as well as the sound of my own breathing going down to a steady pace. The ringing in my ear started to die down. 

“Are you ok?” Alyssa asked her hand still on my shoulder. 

All I could do was nod my head in response. 

“I wasn’t expecting that to happen?” I said

“If there's anything positive to this we might be able to narrow down what you are because you are not immune to us.” She said

“But we need to confirm that. We need Bryan to test me too.”

Alyssa pursed her lips. It didn’t look like she wanted to do that.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded and walked towards Bryan. 

“I need you to try your power on me. Just nothing too big please.”

“Ok. Whatever I do though. You will believe unless for some reason those feelings are contradicted by something too powerful. Like if I make you love a food or a person then unless you eat that food and it's absolutely terrible or the person breaks your heart then you will always believe that you like it.”

I nodded. “Can I choose what you make me believe?”

He thought for a moment before nodding.

I thought of what I could make him do. I didn’t want to suddenly believe in something so much. So maybe I would do food so that when I ate it I would revert back to normal. 

“Make me believe that I like mayo.”

Bryan chuckled at that. He then put his hand on the cheek of my face then looked me in the eyes. 

I didn’t feel any different. And for a moment I hoped that it wouldn’t work. Then I suddenly felt an overwhelming sensation like a buzz go through my body. It was a weird feeling but almost familiar. It reminded me of whenever I used to kiss Julian. 

After the buzz went through my body. I could feel this overwhelming hunger in the pit of my stomach and I could tell that I was hungry. It was weird cause I know that he made me like it and I tried to resist but it's like so much temptation, like when you argue with yourself about having a piece of chocolate but still eat it anyways. I knew I wouldn’t like it but I still knew that I just had to eat it. 

“Do you feel any different?” Bryan said, taking his hand away from my face.

I nodded. 

“I can’t explain it well but I just know that I have an overwhelming craving for mayo on anything. Oh it sounds great to be on a burger right now.”

Bryan just nodded then looked at Alyssa.

“It worked.”

“Fascinating,” she said, “we need to tell the witches immediately.”

They started to walk off leaving me behind. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Usually everything doesn’t work so they spend the rest of the day trying different aspects of the others' powers to see if it would have affected me. 

I went to the bleachers finding my backpack before getting some homework and stuff. I saw a figure in the corner of my eyes and then a slight pressure next to me. I looked up from my work and turned to see who the figure was. It was Hayden, he had one hand on his neck and was rubbing it slightly.

“Hey” I said

“Hey. So sorry about last night.”

For a minute I thought he meant my thoughts of Julian but then I remembered our conversation. I blushed and turned my head away, “oh, it's ok. Nothing to be ashamed of.” I smiled at him. 

“Can I ask why you didn’t answer me then?”

I paused for a moment trying to think of an excuse before sighing. “Talking about crushes made me think of my ex.” I said flatly.

I felt a hand on my hand, then a sudden overwhelming feeling of cold across my body. “I’m sorry,” he said “do you want to talk about it?”

“There's nothing left to say, we dated he turned out to be a jerk and then broke up with me after having sex with me. End of story.”

Hayden didn’t say anything but I could feel his thumb rubbing circles on my hand. 

We sat like that for a while. Hayden kept me company while I worked in silence. He would sometimes talk about something but I was not really paying attention so I didn’t hear that much. 

Before the bell rang, to go home I was barely listening to Hayden when he said something that sparked my interests.

“Repeat what you just said.” I said to him

He chuckled before replying, “I said did you hear how on Monday we are getting a new IB student?”

“Wait? Really?”

“”Yeah, Seth has been keeping it under wraps though. I think people are still recovering from you.” He shoved my arm at that.

“Whatever you all love me by now.”

“Yeah, we do.”

I blushed at that.

“Are they going to do the identification spell on them like they did me?”

“Nah, apparently this guy already knew he was a creature. From what I heard Seth talking with Emma-”

“You mean eavesdropping”

“-As I was saying. When I stumbled upon the conversation. This kid actually found us; we did not find him. I’m not sure what creature he is though. So there's no need to identify him.”

“How did he find us though? Aren't you guys like top secret?”

“Yeah, I think they knew someone here I’m not sure who though.”

“Wow, so you really know nothing is what you're saying.”

He put his hand to his chest in a dramatic fashion, “I’m wounded Raf. Anyways Seth invited him to the party with the witches but he declined.”

“Wow, what a way to start. Poor guy.”

And at that the bell rang. Hayden and I packed our stuff up before saying goodbye. I was soon on my way home. I did some homework before going to bed excited for the party the next day.

\------------------

I knocked on the door of the house. Shuffling my hands under my three gifts in my hands. I was lucky that they were smaller and easy to carry. I waited a minute when the door opened and I was greeted by Bri at the door. 

“Welcome Raf! Come in, if you want you can just place the gifts on the table over there.” She said pointing at the table across the room. “Everyone is just in the living room when you're done.” She then walked down the hall and then turned to her left. 

I set the presents down before making my own way down the hallway. I could hear loud music playing as I approached the room.

When I entered I saw people gathered in groups, some sitting on the couch, some in the kitchen next to the room and other groups just chatting in different spots of the room. I went around the room saying hi to people and started to talk things over with others. I was in a heated discussion on Mal and Seth about Mal's hair being too long when I heard a long chime in the room. 

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to the staircase that was located near the hallway. Suddenly music could be heard around us. And three figures walked down the room. 

The first figure was Jamie who wore a strapless black dress with silver sparkles across her chest. The dress came to her mid-thigh and she wore black heels with it. She stood at the end of the stairway and then looked up at the staircase.

Next was Emma. She was in a light blue dress with a dark blue line across her stomach. She had blue earrings in and high heels on. She stood next to Jamie before turning her attention back to the staircase.

Finally was Izzy. She wore a bright red dress that came to her shows. There was a gap in between her dress that showed her left leg. She had ruby earrings in and black high heels on. As she got to the others they walked in a line towards the crowd. They started greeting people and I saw them handing items to people.

“What are they doing?” I asked Mal next to me.

“They are giving everyone a magical item. Rewarding everyone for giving them a gift and showing support to their coven.”

The party continued as the girls made their way around the room. 

I started talking to Hayden, who had a glass of what smelled like alcohol. 

“Dude, why are you drinking so much?”

“I literally can not get drunk unless I drink so much.”

“Why?”

“Vampires just have a high tolerance.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Excuse us.” A voice said behind me. “Can we talk to you Raf.” Hayden excused himself and walked away. I turned to see the three girls who were the highlight of the party.

“Hey guys.” I said

They all waved to me before Izzy started to speak.

``We thank you for coming to Raf and we appreciate your gift.” The lines seemed practiced as if they were saying this with everyone they met. 

“We would like to give you an item that we think you would appreciate.” She handed me a necklace, it had a black stone in the middle with pointed silver edges around the stone. 

“What is it?” I asked

“Well it's basically an item that shut downs anyone's power for a couple of minutes. We were told about how you're not immune to demon powers and about your little freak out. So we made you this so if you ever feel threatened you can shut off one person's power for a small period of time. But it only works one time.”

“Woah, how did you make this?”

“It's kind of a complicated spell that's why not everyone has one. It requires a very rare ingredient called Drop of Grace.”

“What is that?”

“Its a rare plant that has certain magical properties that can strengthen or weaken any spell you put into based on how you use it. It's rumored to be from an angel blood as far as some folklore says.”

“Angels? Are they real too?”

“I would not be surprised since demons are real but no one has ever witnessed one and no one knows what they can do besides what the bible says.”

At that, I thanked them all again for their gracious gift. I put the necklace on and quickly went to look for Hayden again. I found him upstairs by himself away from the party gathered downstairs.

“What are you doing up here man?” I asked

“I could ask you the same thing.” He responded.

“I came to find you. So I ask again ``why are you up here?”

“Everything gets so loud sometimes down there I thought I would come up here where it's quiet to think.”

  
Whatcha thinking about?”

“Life.”

I stood next to him. “Life huh, that's a lot to cover for you to think about.”

He chuckled at that. “Oh shut up.” 

We were quiet for a bit just soaking up each other's presence, not needing to talk to each other. Hayden slid down the wall to where he was now sitting with his knees to his chest. I decided that maybe he was thinking of something serious and decided to leave him in peace. I started to walk away saying.

“Well I’ll leave you to think about whate-” 

Before I could walk any further Hayden grabbed my hand and pulled me back.

“Don’t go” I heard him whisper.

Not knowing what to do. I sat down next to him and got comfy. Our arms were right next to each other, not close enough where we were touching but close enough that I could feel some heat was radiating from him. 

I looked over at him. Staring at his face. He was concentrating so very hard on something that he didn’t even look over at me when I looked at him. 

I felt peace in those moments, able to look without judgement. I considered that maybe I should tell him about my feelings. At the moment it felt right and I felt the courage to do so.

Hayden then looked at me and smiled. I took the chance and I leaned in to kiss him. I felt his lips against mine and Hayden grow stiff. After a moment and nothing changed I realized what I had done. I quickly broke the kiss off and got up and turned away from him.

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry.” And at that I started to head back to the noise. My mind was reeling and I could not believe what I just did. I was so stuck in my thoughts that I ran into Seth.

“Oh, there you are. I came to find you. Hey are ok?”

I just shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s fine. If you're up to it I would like you to meet someone.”

“Who?” I said quietly, my voice barely a whisper.

I followed Seth downstairs where a group was gathered in the living room.

“Raf I would like you to meet our newest member of IB.”

The group parted and in the middle was a tall man with raven black hair. He looked at me and started into my eyes with his own vibrant blue eyes.

“Hey Raf nice to see you again.”

“Julian?!”


End file.
